who willingly sojourn here,
and by whom these gardens are considered as a holy place of worship. In
the morning the rippling stream of the Scend is crowded with these
Brahmin priests, sanctifying their hoary heads, as they suppose, with
the pure waters of this fair and sparkling stream, and offering worship
to their gods.

In the course of the afternoon we visited the old city, that had been
buried by an earthquake. We could distinctly see tops of temples, trees,
and houses, and there are still many wide and yawning excavations in the
earth. At the extreme end of this old town stands the palace, in a state
of dilapidation and decay. Some few priests reside in what was once the
zenanah, the lower apartments of which run into the gliding stream of
the Scend, and are washed by this beautiful river passing through them.
Here we bathed, to the great annoyance and mortification of the priests
who resided there, who did not fail to tell us in plain terms, that we
had contaminated and polluted the sacred stream.

We next visited the subterraneous passage which was reported to reach
from Ougein to the city of Benares, some two thousand miles! We
commenced our exploration of this place by candle-light, and every ten
yards descended into rooms almost square, till the place became so damp
and chilly, that we were induced to return; but, even from the short
distance we had accomplished, we could easily discover that it led to
the palace, which stood about a quarter of a mile from it, and had no
doubt been a secret passage to the zenanah, for some nefarious purpose.
These subterraneous passages to the palaces of the great must have been
designed for purposes dark as they are mysterious; and, could these dark
and lonely cells but speak, I fear they would tell many a woful tale.
Over the mouth, or entrance, of this subterraneous passage, was a kind
of old gateway, and on its still tottering towers were sculptured many
tales of wonder, as false as they were strange. Wishing to see
everything worth beholding, we commenced our march, by descending three
or four steps into a square room, that was perfectly green from the damp
vapour rising from the ground. In one corner of this room, which was
about six feet square, we discovered a wrinkled old man reposing on some
ashes, his hair white and his beard of great length. He viewed us with
the eye of a lynx, and, having bid us the usual greeting of the morning,
he at the same time sat up, and